Cervantes National Theatre (Teatro Nacional Cervantes)
Argentina's national theatre: a 1921 Spanish Renaissance-revival house with three working stages.
The Teatro Nacional Cervantes opened on 5 September 1921, built at the initiative of the Spanish actress María Guerrero and her husband Fernando Díaz de Mendoza, who put much of their fortune into it. Fernando Aranda and Emilio Repetto designed a Spanish Renaissance-revival building whose façade echoes the university at Alcalá de Henares, and a great deal of the interior was shipped from Spain: Valencian tiles, Andalusian wrought iron, Madrid drapery and a stage curtain woven in Seville.
The venture failed financially and the building was auctioned in 1926, passing to the Argentine state, which made it the country's national theatre in 1933. A fire in 1961 gutted the stage and auditorium, and the rebuilt house reopened in 1968. Three stages are in use today: the Sala María Guerrero, seating around 860, the smaller Sala Orestes Caviglia and the gilded Sala Luisa Vehil. The theatre was declared a National Historic Monument in 1995.
Highlights
- Façade modelled on the Spanish university at Alcalá de Henares
- Sala María Guerrero, the main auditorium seating about 860
- Interiors fitted with tiles, ironwork and fabrics brought from Spain
- Rebuilt after the 1961 fire and reopened in 1968
